ORCHID HYBRIDS 



THE exceptional attention devoted to orchid hybridization for some thirty years, 

 whether with species or varieties, has given rise to a numerous progeny as varied 

 in form and colour as many Florists' flowers, and still scarcely a year passes 

 without adding a new genus amenable to artificial hybridization. 



Probably the first attempt to raise hybrid orchids is due to Dean Herbert, 

 known for his work among the Amaryllidese, but little apparently resulted. 

 Robert Gallier, a gardener, sent to the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1849 an account of 

 his attempt to raise hybrid orchids by crossing Dendrobium nobile and D. chrysan- 

 thum, and of the short life only a few weeks of the young plants reared 

 from the cross-fertilized seed. The first successful hybridizer of Orchids, John 

 Dominy, acting on the suggestion of Mr. John Harris, a surgeon of Exeter, 

 worked there about the year 1853. The first result was Calanthe X Dominii, 

 obtained from C. masuca and C. furcata, which flowered for the first time in 

 October 1856, the plants being two years old. About three years later a hybrid 

 Cattleya followed, C. X hybrida, the result of crossing C. guttata and C. inter- 

 media, and was exhibited for the first time in August 1859. 



In November of the same year Cattleya x Dominiana flowered, a very grand 

 hybrid named after the raiser. Still another appeared in 1859, and this, perhaps 

 the most brilliant result ever obtained by the hybridist, named Calanthe X 

 Veitchii, is probably the most widely grown of any hybrid orchid, the beautiful 

 rose-coloured flowers especially valuable during the winter season. It resulted 

 from a cross between C. rosea (then called Limatodes rosea) and C. vestita. 



In June 1861, what was held to be the first bigeneric hybrid appeared, and was 

 exhibited under the name of Goodyera x Dominii, a product of a cross between 

 G. discolor and Anoactochilus Lowii, now known as Hsemaria discolor and 

 Dossiiiia marmorata respectively. It appears to be now lost, but a similar 

 hybrid, Goodyera X Veitchii, flowered the following year, the result of crossing 

 Hsemaria discolor and Macodes petola, or Anoactochilus Veitchianus, as it was 

 then called. 



Cattleya x Brabantise (at first named Cattleya X Aclandi-Loddigesii) flowered 

 in July 1863, and received a silver Banksian Medal from the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. 



The next, a remarkable advance, the forerunner of the numerous Lselio- 

 cattleyas since raised, was exhibited under the name of Cattleya X exoniensis, the 

 parents being either C. Mossise or C. labiata and Lselia crispa. 



Following these came Lselia X Pilcheriana, from L. crispa and L. Perrinii, one 

 of the earliest of all crosses, the seed sown in 1853 ; Ancectochilus X Dominii, 

 derived from Goodyera (Hsemaria) discolor and Anoactochilus xanthophyllus, in 

 May 1865 ; Cattleya X quincolor in June 1865 ; C. X Manglesii in August 1866 : 



473 



